installing xp in vista preloaded

you will have to Slipstream it with the driver.

This is how you do it but you will have to find out the Motherboard specs for the Sata Driver. Check the Make and Model of your Notebook and do a Google search for the drivers or post the information here so that a peer may be able to help you track down the drivers.

Extract and Copy the SATA Drivers to a Floppy Disk. Boot from the XP CD and when prompted, press F6 to install the SATA drivers from the floppy disk. If you haven't a Floppy Drive Slipstream your XP installation with the SATA drivers.

How To: Slipstream your XP installation

Download nLite

http://home.midmaine.com/~nlite/nlite/nLite-1.4.8.installer.exe

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/

These are the steps that I took and if you have any problems read the guide.

Download the Sata Drivers from the manufactures web site.

Install Nlite

Extract the Sata Drivers to a folder named Sata using WinRar. http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Copy the entire XP CD to a folder named XPS

I then ran Nlite and Browsed to the XPS folder, click Next, click Next then select the Drivers and Bootable ISO click Next.

At the Drivers Tab click insert, click single driver and navigate to the folder with the .inf file for windows XP.

Highlight it and select open and select next. Select Textmode driver and select the XP Sata driver and click OK.

Click next and Yes to apply changes, next and select Make ISO. Burn it to CD using Nero or any other Software that will support the ISO Image.

How to burn an ISO Image:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/burn.htm

Keep us informed as to your progress if you require further assistance.

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Jacky has pretty much covered how you can get your hard drive recognized.

Before you start, make sure you can find XP drivers for all of your hardware devices.

On many newer laptops, there is not an XP version driver for the wireless adapter or sound system.

Start with HP, and see if they do have drivers available to download. If HP does not have drivers, you can see if the chip manufactures offer "reference" drivers that you can try.

If you cannot find a driver for ANY device that you need to use, do NOT attempt to install XP.

I would recommend that instead of installing XP over Vista on your existing hard drive that you get a new hard drive and install XP on the new drive. That way, should you ever want to go back to Vista, you can simply swap the drives.

Chas